Thursday, January 31, 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Another Purple Kitty reprint of a Clark' O.N.T. pattern book from 1950. The different patterns can be downloaded one by one from their Free Vintage Crochet site, or you can say to heck with it and buy the eBook.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Friday I made the dough for the twelve-hour, no-knead country bread recipe from Cook's magazine, one I've made at least half a dozen times before and always successfully. Imagine my surprise when I took the rising bowl out of the microwave (cook 1 cup of water for 2 minutes, remove the water and use as a rising oven. No drafts. I always set bread to rise in the microwave), instead of a high, wide and handsome Clint Walker batch of dough I got Gabby Hayes.

Oh, well, the weekend was young. On Saturday I set my bread machine for a loaf of wheat bread. What the machine produced -- again using a trusted recipe -- was a densely compacted tan brick with a decided list to starboard.

Was it the yeast? Is my bread flour too old? Am I perhaps a bit slapdash in putting my dough together?

This morning I downloaded this recipe from the Fleischmann's website and followed the instructions to the letter. Unfortunately as I was in the middle of the mixing process the phone rang and I had to speak with a young lady from the Red Cross who wanted me to donate blood next week. I returned to my batter, finished the kneading, placed it in the rising bowl and the rising bowl in the microwave ---

-- turned around and saw the package of yeast cleverly hiding from me behind the stand mixer.

It's a good thing the spousal unit likes whomp biscuits because that's what he's getting with his dinner tonight.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. ~ Marcus Cole (Babylon 5)

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Spent some idle hours this weekend going through vintage issues of the Australian Home Journal (available for free download from archive.org). These are some suggestions to fancy up a plain frock, from 1949. Left-click to enlarge.

“Hotel? Why, Bob!
With our house and our dishes and our silver just waiting for us? I’m ashamed of you! We’ll take the first car for home – a streetcar,
not a taxi! Our extravagant days are
over, and the time has come to show you that Bettina knows how to keep
house. You think that you love me now,
Bobby, but just wait till you sit down to a real strawberry shortcake made by a
real cook in a real home!”

The authors of A Thousand Ways To Please A Husband were
awfully fond of exclamation points and frugality, as a reading of this
delightful 1917 cookbook shows. Smart,
thrifty Bettina charms her husband Bob and wins over her in-laws with the delicious and economical meals
she whips up.

The first night in their new bungalow, she ties a percale
apron over her traveling suit and fixes a dinner of creamed tuna on toast
strips and canned peas, made possible by the emergency shelf the two of them
fixed up before the wedding. Buying in
larger lots helps Bettina save money, something she knows Bob will appreciate “Now
that you have to pay my bills, Bob.”

Bettina's larder contains the following:

6 cans pimentos (small size) 6 cans tomatoes

6 cans tuna (small size) 6 pt jars pickles

6 cans salmon (small size) 6 pt jars olives

6 jars dried beef 6 small cans condensed milk

12 cans corn 6 boxes sweet wafers

12 cans peas 1 pound box salted codfish

6 cans string beans 3 pkg marshmallows

6 cans lima beans 3 cans mushrooms

6 cans devilled ham (small size) 2 pkg macaroni

But the emergency shelf is just that -- for emergencies. After tonight, Bob will get real food, not just canned things.

The book is a mammoth 488 pages but lots of fun to
read. A pdf can be downloaded from
archive.org.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Sunday, January 13, 2013

To Stop The Hair From Falling Out: Wash the hair in just as hot water as it is possible for the person to endure, then take the scalp and gently pinch all over. This is excellent. L.M.P.

A Little Ironing Suggestion. When the top of the stove is full and it is time to get dinner with still some ironing to be accomplished, the irons can be heated very nicely in the oven. E.M.S.

New Ironware. New ironware cannot be used for cooking unless it is first boiled. I have found that the addition of potato parings and a little lye to the water is the best means of getting the new vessels ready to use. I recently purchased a set of waffle irons and tried several ways to get them in condition to use and at last tried putting them in a clothes boiler with potato parings, lye and cold water and allowed them to come to a boil and remain boiling two hours. The irons were ready to use and have given no trouble. Mrs. L.A.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

One lb. roundsteak cut up in very small cubes. Fry in butter slowly until tender. Fry chopped onions in butter until done. Put together in a kettle and add 1 can mushrooms and a few sliced stuffed olives, 1 can kidney beans, about two pimentos cut up fine. Salt, pepper, cayenne. thicken with flour and water thickening. Serve on lettuce leaf with buttered roll.

Because Help Can't Wait

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About Me

Middle-aged Middle-westerner, retired Marine and Detroiter who somehow wound up in a farm village of 900 people. I am a Red Cross volunteer and adrenalin junkie, and currently work as a bioterrorism/public health planner. My hobbies are military history and needlework. I share the bungalow with the Spousal Unit, Reserve Cat who is by far the nicest and sweetest inhabitant of the bungalow, and Babyface, our German Shepherd. You will find here free patterns from my collection of pre-1955 needlework magazines (sewing, knitting, tatting, crochet, embroidery, etc) as well as old recipes, vintage household hints, poetry, occasional rants, LOLCats, and any pieces of ephemera that tickle my fancy.